THE Tembari Children's Care (TCC) Inc is a day care facility at ATS Oro Settlement, 7-Mile, outside of Port Moresby, PNG. To date, it takes care of more than 200 former street children - orphans, abandoned and the unfortunate - by serving them meals twice a day, and providing them early education. Assistance - food and money - is sent by supporters who find merit in the services we provide to these children. At The Center, they are family. For all of these, we need support that is sustainable.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Lands Secretary John Ofoi stresses a point to British
expat Mauricio Diaz, sales and marketing manager of telco Global Technologies, who is Tembari school project manager. Secretary
Ofoi is scrutinizing the documents that Tembari has presented to him towards
acquiring a title to the 3,500 square meter property it occupies at Oro
settlement, 7 Mile outside Port
Moresby. The Secretary has assured Tembari that he
will expedite the processing of its land title application so it could start
building a preschool for its beneficiary children. – Photo by ALFREDO P
HERNANDEZ, Port Moresby,
PNG

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

AS they say, “we are getting there …”

And this makes Tembari upbeat on the big prospect that it is
going to have a title soon to the land its preschool center occupies.

It was the so-called turn of events that we at Tembari had
never expected.

In our very first audience with Department of Lands
Secretary John Ofoi last week, he assured me and my colleague Mauricio Diaz, a
British expat-executive at a big IT company in Port Moresby, that all we have
to do is complete the land titling requirements – survey map, sketches, plans, building
plans and all – give them to him. He’ll take care of the rest.

Secretary Ofoi said: I’m taking the short route to award
Tembari a land title … I will avail of the so-called “Ministerial Exemption”
route … through which I could allot you the property for titling and nobody
could ever lay claim over it …”

He said the other process is for our land title application
to undergo scrutiny and evaluation by a lands board made up of people from
different discipline. Depending on the outcome of the board’s evaluation, a
decision to deny or award the title would be made.

It is an exercise that could go the short route or take a
long-winding road.

The good Secretary said he was impressed with what Tembari
is doing for many settlement children whose future was bleak until they where
ushered in to Tembari’s loving arms.

“I’m very particular with groups like Tembari and I want to
help it …”, Sec Ofo said after scrutinizing our documents and learning of the
center’s plan on that piece of 3,500-square meter lot at Oro settlement at 7
Mile, outside Port Moresby.

He became interested in the preschool classroom building we
are to build on property, which we hope could begin sometime this July.

“Tembari will get it (the land title) … and it will enjoy
its use of this land for 99 years,” Secretary Ofoi said.

The title to the property is the very first requisite that the
Australian High Commission said Tembari has to fulfill before it could green
light the start of the preschool building construction.

The Aussie High Comm is the lead donor-sponsor of the school
building project. The other project supporters are Hardware Haus, AzkoNobel,
Malaysian Association of PNG (MAPNG), Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG), PNG Stones, PNG Concrete Aggregates, AP
Engineering Ltd of East New Britain, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Eda Ranu and the Lands Department.

Worth K100,000, the preschool building will house four
classrooms for use by about 100 children who are Tembari beneficiaries and
other settlement children with parents who can afford to support them
financially.

Since Tembari is the only government-accredited CBO
(community-based organization) at the settlement operating a preschool, it is
mandated to accommodate preschool children from the community to get an early education
together with Tembari children, who are abandoned, neglected and orphans.

But it is not only the 100 preschool kids that get the
benefit of various services from the Tembari facility.

It is actually looking after about 200 unfortunate
settlement children by providing them meals twice a day, from Monday to
Saturday, sending 78 of them to elementary and primary school in Port Moresby,
offering them other opportunities to learn like watching educational DVDs and
kiddie movies, and cultural development programs such as involving them in
cultural dances and song presentation and sport activities such as volleyball,
football and rugby.

And most of all, the kids are given the tender, loving care
that they are missing owing to the absence of their parents and most important,
a home away from home.

The daily feeding activities are being made possible by
sustained donations from RD Foundation, SVS Mart, High Energy Co, Pure Water
Company, Pacific Industries Ltd, Malaysian Association in PNG (MAPNG), Hugo Canning, Filipino
Association in PNG (FAPNG) and Homeguard Construction Ltd. There are individual donors whose foodstuff donation make the bulk of the monthly supplies but wished not to be unidentified.

The acquisition of a land title to Tembari’s premises is
only the start of many things that would enhance the welfare and development of
our beneficiary children.

So to Lands Secretary John Ofoi: Sir, I salute you for this
gesture to help us provide a better life to our unfortunate beneficiary
children.

The land title that you are going to award to Tembari will
be the key to everything great, as far as our beneficiary children are
concerned.

Penny Sage-embo (left) thanking corporate sponsors and
supporters of Tembari’s daily feeding programme during the day care centre’s ninth
anniversary on Saturday. With her is Queen of Tembari Phylis Topogo,14, one of
the first beneficiary children who is attending secondary school.- Nationalpics by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

The streak of progress that our day care facility has been
enjoying since 2010 – the year when corporate sponsors and generous individual
donors began arriving in good measure – could reach a higher peak this year.

That is when it finally starts putting up a K100,000-kit
classrooms for its preschoolers and elementary schoolchildren.

And soon, it would get a land title to the 3,500-square
meter property it occupies at Oro settlement outside of Port Moresby.

During its 9th anniversary on Saturday, Penny
Sage-embo, the founder of Tembari and the facility’s programme coordinator, told
me these two milestones, which are now in sight, are making everybody at the
center quite upbeat.

Finally after nine years of uphill struggle for recognition
from the community hosting its home, Tembari is about to get there, so to
speak.

All these were made possible by the sustained support by
donors from the corporate world and from individuals who find Tembari’s calling
something worthy of support.

It would be appropriate to recall once more that from 2003
to 2009 – a grinding six years in the life of the facility it never received
any sustainable funding.

It was fortunate that in 2009, Digicel Foundation took
notice of Penny’s endeavor to keep some 78 street children under its wings.
That time, Penny was now operating as a day care center and also a preschool
for its ward.

Queen of Tembari
Phylis Topogo (left) warning a child for being a trouble-maker instead of studying
hard in a skit that highlighted the big role of corporate sponsors and
supporters in changing their lives – from being village street children to one
who are now in school and having proper meals everyday. Topogo,14, who attends
secondary school, was herself among the first few abandoned children who were
taken in as beneficiary when Tembari Children’s Care was founded as a day care
facility in 2003 by Penny Sage-embo. – Photo by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

The center has provided them a safe playground at its
premises and fed them at least three times a week with kaw-kaw, greens and
watery cordial.

With support from a few volunteer mothers who had chipped in
to buy the foodstuff, Penny was able to keep the mind and soul of these
unfortunate children intact and inspired.

And to boost Temabi’s early education program, Digicel
Foundation provided it with two community learning centers (CLCs) in the form
of container vans fitted into classrooms.

Fast forward to Saturday, the day when Tembari marked its 9th
year as a community-based organization registered with the Investment Promotion
Authority (IPA).

Penny said: “We are looking forward to start a K100,000
school building middle of this year.”

“At the same time, we are hoping to soon acquire a title to
the 3,500 square metre property that Tembari is occupying,” Sage-embo said.

She said the Department of Lands Secretary John Ofoi has
assured the day care facility would be allocated the property towards its
educational program for the settlement children.

Sagembo said that aside from operating a pre-school that
benefits 40 Tembari children and another 60 from the settlement, Tembari is
going to progress into an elementary school programme, initially with each
class in Grade 1 and Grade 2.

“They will hold classes at the four-classroom building that
we are going to build by July,” she said.

Right now, the Tembari preschoolers are holding classes in
two community learning centres (CLCs) donated by Digicel Foundation in 2009.

Sage-embo said this school year, Tembari would be looking
after 200 children, providing them meals twice a day, from Monday to Friday and
one meal on Saturday.

Of the 200 children, 58 are in primary schools in Port Moresby with 30 of
them at Wardstrip in Gordon. The rest are in other schools in the city.

Likewise, the facility has 67 elementary schoolchildren with
58 of them at Wardstrip.

It is also providing early childhood education, or
preschool, to 40 children.

Aside from this, Tembari is taking care of 25 non-schoool
age children, who like the rest, are neglected, abandoned and orphaned
children.

In a brief remark before guests that included corporate
executives and community leaders who attended last Saturday’s open house activities,
Sage-embo thanked Tembari’s s corporate sponsors and supporters of its daily
feeding programme.

Likewise, Sage-embo thanked the sponsors of the school
building project that included Australian High Commission, Hardware Haus,
AzkoNobel, Malaysian Association of PNG (MAPNG), Filipino Association of PNG
(FAPNG), AP Engineering of East New Britain, Eda Ranu, the Lands Department,
PNG Concrete and Aggregates, PNG Stones Ltd, RH Group (PNG), Paradise Interiors,
Curtain Bros and Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC).

The lunch food served to the kids on Saturday was sponsored
by YES Ltd, a Filipino-operated money remittance service in Port Moresby and individual donors who wished
not to be mentioned.

Tembari
preschoolers perform a nursery song in front of guests.

Personally from me: Our donors and supporters are superb.
They have never failed me when I approached them for something that the Tembari
kids needed.

It is for this reason that we’re working hard for the sake
of the children whose future all lies in the hands of our donors and
supporters.

The foodstuff they sent has kept the Tembari children’s
spirits high and their stomachs full.

But while they are helping us feed our children, donors have
also dug deeper into their pockets to provide them education.

Food and money -- two elements in the lives of the
less-fortunate Tembari children -- are combining to make them realize that some
big, bright future also awaits them.

And with the tender loving care that Tembari provides, their
lives are gradually going full circle.

Tembari’s
preschoolers await lunch last Saturday.

Tembari preschoolers queue for lunch last Saturday, after the Open House with invited guests.

Kids
receive donuts and flavored milk for snacks, courtesy of SVS mart, YES Ltd, Mr & Mrs Ronald Dizon of Monian Ltd, Nara Muniandy of The National, The Water Company and Pacific Industries.

Tinned fish from RD Foundation and bottled water from Pure Water Company. RDF is supplying Tembari with 15 cartons of tinned fish every
month while Pure Water Company delivers every month bulk water to fill up a
5,000 liter tank and also supplies the center with 20 containers of purified water (19 liters)
every week. Another company, the High Energy Co, also supplies the facility
with 5,000 liters of drinkable water every month.

Crowd from the community watch the Tembari children's sing-sing performance.

The SVS supermarket supplies Tembari with 10 cartons of
flavored milk every month. The freezer and the fridge in the picture are
donated by the Australian High Commission.

Preschool
children shows off unused 2011 diaries which they will use as writing pads. The
donation from The Ella Murray International School (TEMIS) in Port Moresby
comprised 16 cartons, with each containing 80 pieces of diaries. – All pictures
by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

THE BLOGGER

ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, A Friend of Tembari Children. Blogger APH came to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in 1993 to join The National newspaper as one of its pioneering journalists. Working as Executive Sub Editor, he has remained with the daily, now the country’s No. 1 newspaper, up to these days. He has been a journalist since his university days in Manila back in the late 60s. APH’s involvement with the Tembari children began in January 2010 after he discovered them at a Christmas party for the city’s 500 unfortunate children held at the Botanical Garden in Port Moresby. That day, he was chasing a story for The National, which happened to be that of the unfortunate children in the city. His self-appointed job for Tembari children composed of orphaned, abandoned, neglected and unfortunate children is to look for people and groups who could provide them food, money, health services and facilities necessary to create positive changes in their lives. This job is difficult, but what the heck …!

(Our sponsored Saturday lunch for the 200 Tembari kids costs only K250.00 per sponsor (we usually have two), which covers a special meat (fish or chicken) dish, veggies, steamed rice and cordial drink. The Saturday lunch needs at least two sponsors. Some had given more, allowing us to give the kids a generous heap of the day’s lunch. A rare bonus to the sponsors, along with the bricks they earn each time, is that I personally cook the dish, giving it a personal touch. And as they earn a brick, each of our benefactors also earn a passage into the heart of the Tembari kids, which is also a prepaid ticket to Heaven.)